economic and business statistics

Research Proposal

How did countries respond to the COVID-19 pandemic?

Jaiden Angeles, Olivia Kunze, Yujie Yang, Xinyu Zhang

BUS/ECON 226 ON2: Economics & Business Statistics

University of the Fraser Valley

David Dobson, Instructor

September 22, 2020

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction 3 Objectives for Research 3 Research Questions 3 Research Hypotheses 4 Data Sources 5 Variable Terminology 7 References 8

The purpose of this research proposal is how did countries respond to the COVID-19 pandemic? In 2020, The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has a huge impact on countries around the world. The rapid spread of the virus has tested the ability of countries to treat and contain the CONID-19. Our team will study the country's healthcare and their ability to control the COVID-19 outbreak. The research proposal includes objectives for research, research questions, research hypotheses, data sources, variable terminology. Our group will study the topics based on the information and data collected.

The objectives of this research revolve around understanding the underlying conditions of how the COVID-19 virus spread and different countries’ tactics in controlling it with their medicare systems. We hope to uncover the best ways that healthcare can offer support and ensure a handicap on the epidemic’s growth. This research would also be beneficial for understanding the political and environmental landscapes of countries that affect their ability to control the virus and assist with proper medical attention. We developed research questions and hypotheses to seek out the most relevant and disputable events and factors that have led to its viral spread.

Research Questions

In this Research project, we have come up with a series of questions, for us to understand the impacts Covid-19 has caused to our world population as well as how individual countries have fairer through their methods of strategy to prevent widespread contagion. From Analyzing a country's literacy and poverty rates to that of their government structure, we hope to further understand the optimal variables needed to keep the virus at its lowest rate of transmission. The question we shall attempt to answer are as follows;

· Did the countries’ healthcare system cause that said country to result in lower cases, or a high level of control on the viruses spread?

· In countries where a female was in a position of leadership did the countries’ ability to control the pandemic spread seen as better, worse, or indifferent?

· Did the countries implementation or lack of implementation of masks to be worn in public change the rate of spread of the virus

· In countries where illiteracy rates and poverty rates are high have a worse time off during the pandemic comparatively to countries with high literacy rates and low poverty rates?

· Did the country’s government models effect said country’s ability to control the spread of the pandemic?

· Did countries who have a left-winged government party in power fair better than that country whose leaders were right-winged?

Research hypotheses were constructed regarding COVID-19 to test the developments and outcomes among various countries. COVID-19 has changed and altered the world economy and stifled the health of people on a global scale, and creating hypotheses to explain the phenomena will provide insight to explain the virus’ different impacts as well. The hypotheses we have devised are as follows:

· Developed countries’ mass purchasing of crucial medical supplies increased the spread of COVID-19 in third-world countries

· Countries encouraging house quarantine and strict distancing precautions can control the virus more effectively than those with lenient regulations

· Countries that have dealt with major epidemics in the past were able to effectively handle the quarantine and lower their cases compared with inexperienced countries

· Island countries had a greater ability to control the virus as opposed to those on the mainland

· Countries with low morale and distrust in their government had higher COVID-19 infection rates and cases

· Countries that closed their borders to foreign countries were able to achieve lower COVID-19 infection rates or had fewer deaths

· The COVID-19 virus promoted increased attention and funding in hospitals and medical professions greater in wealthy countries versus poor countries

In this project, we will be using a variety of different Data sources to gather information intended to assist us in answering the above research questions below is the list of data sources we intend to use for the initial if not all reach for the outline project;

Trading Economics (2020)

Trading Economics is a data source that provides a variety of data sources for a range of variables that include variables our group intends to analyze. Such data includes; world unemployment rates, population, coronavirus data, and country’s GDP.

The World Fact Book (CIA, 2020)

The world factbook allows us to view a summary of the world’s countries. This is ideal for us to gather an overall understanding of the countries we have chosen to study.

The Legatum Prosperity Index (2019)

The Legatum Prosperity Index as hinted by the title shows the ranks of countries around the world and how they stand overall and in individual prosperity categories. This will allow us to gather ranking data that will help confirm or deny our project hypothesis and impact the answers to the questions we have outlined in the above sections.

Literacy Rates (Brinkhoff, T, 2020)

Due to our research regarding whether a country's literacy rates impact that country's ability to better respond to the Covid-19 pandemic we have selected a site listing all the country’s rates of literacy to accurately source our data.

European Center for Disease Control (ECDC, 2020)

To collect the necessary data needed to understand the scope and impact of the Covid-19 virus, we will be sourcing data from the ECDC which displays the daily change to the Covid-19 virus and its growth or dissipation in the past and current months.

News Medical (Dr. Thomas, L, 2020)

The last source we intend to use (subject to change) is that of the News Medical, this site offers an article written by that of Dr. Liji Thomas, analyzing the impact of women in leadership roles and their ability to better create policy decreasing the spread of the virus. We intend to use this article as a secondary source to our data, helping to prove that women in leadership roles do change the way countries handle the current Covid-19 pandemic.

Economic Indicators: List By Category. (2020). Retrieved September 22, 2020, from https://tradingeconomics.com/indicators

The World Factbook. (2018, February 01). Retrieved September 22, 2020, from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/

Rankings. (2019, October 30). Retrieved September 22, 2020, from https://www.prosperity.com/rankings

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. (2020, September 20). Retrieved September 22, 2020, from https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications-data/download-todays-data-geographic-distribution-covid-19-cases-worldwide

Thomas, D. (2020, July 17). COVID-19 outcomes better in countries with female leaders. Retrieved September 22, 2020, from https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200717/COVID-19-outcomes-better-in-countries-with-female-leaders.aspx